Why the 2nd Amendment Isn’t Only About “Militias”

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution reads, ““A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the Right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The idea, often espoused by anti-gun leftists today, that the 2nd Amendment only covers militia service and purposes, is clearly incorrect for a couple of reasons, even without getting into what was meant by the terms “well regulated” and “militia.”

First, from a purely grammatical standpoint, it just doesn’t say that, and there is no reason to think the drafters were poor grammarians-quite the opposite, in fact. Because of the way the explanatory “militia clause” is used in the amendment, it is not, grammatically speaking, a limitation on the imperative, “shall not be infringed” clause. Is this just a “quibble?” Some may say so, but, given the amount of time and effort that went into drafting and revising, and re-revising, the wording, I think it most unlikely that the end product wasn’t very carefully thought out, word-for-word, before the final submission, which all the states ultimately found satisfactory, and ratified.

However, there is a much more far reaching principle involved. If you consider their writings at the time, and the principles the Founding Fathers were basing our country and government on, you will see that the most fundamental principle underlying all others was the idea that the government was instituted by the people, for the purpose of safeguarding the personal liberty of each individual citizen. The basic idea being that…